Saturday, March 19, 2011

What a pretty day we had today! After a nice slow morning of two cups of coffee while watching some morning TV with the hubby, I did get to spend some time finishing up a pretty periwinkle linen blouse with Yogi in the sewing room!

The weather outside was so nice that I opened the window in my sewing room

and Yogi enjoyed sleeping next to it!!

All that fresh air and sunshine coming in the window…

he does get such wonderful sleep in the sewing room!!

I finished three new linen blouses this week and also completed my new “Four Squared”

quilt made with a jelly roll of Amy Butler’s luscious Soul Blossoms fabric.

I found a unique chartreuse green solid to go with it to create my new design.

I am pleased how it turned out and Yogi likes it, too! (And he sure needs a haircut, huh?)

This afternoon, I started on a new project for the Moda Bake Shop… stay tuned! :-)

Monday, March 14, 2011

Thank you for all the many wonderful color suggestions in your comments on my last post. There were so many good ideas!! Some colors I would never have thought of…

I took my 16 patch blocks to the local quilt shop and laid them on all the solids they had. One color really screamed my name… and it was a color I’ve never used before and actually had to look up how to spell it!!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

OOKAAAAY… not sure why that title just popped in my head for this post… but I like it!

I am torn!! I had this Amy Butler “Soul Blossom” jelly roll sitting on my sewing table calling my name BIG TIME since I got back from the quilt show, so I ruminated a few days, designing a quilt to make with it and came up with one that I think will be a good one.

I sorted the strips into sets of four

I sewed them together into strip sets and then sub-cut them into 2 1/2” strips which will be sewn together to create 16 patch blocks. I got this far then remembered that this Saturday is our March bee day and I need a quilt to bind there!! ACK!

So, I am torn between dying to get on with my new quilt design and getting a top quilted to take to bee… which goes along with my goal to quilt at least one top a week until my pile is gone…

So, the top won, sigh, and I have quilted about 75% of it so far. Will finish it tomorrow after work and get the binding prepared and sewn on ready to do the hand work on Saturday at bee.

Then I can get back to my new quilt!! YUMMM!

Oh, and one more thing! I had a little “light bulb over my head” moment the other day chatting with my bee friend Lorraine in the car going to the show. So, I tried out the new idea today while quilting. I took one pair of my favorite Atlas quilting gloves and cut the fingertips off the thumbs, and first two fingers on each glove.

I HATE having to take my gloves off each time I need to snag a stray thread or rethread the needle or pull up the bottom thread.

And with just those three fingers out on both hands, I can leave the gloves on do anything I need while quilting! YAY! Why the heck did I never think of this before??? Well, DUH!!

So, what are you working on these days?? Has spring arrived in your area yet??

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

There was some really wonderful quilts exhibited, of course. And even more delightful vendors!!

What my friends and I observed was how many more wool booths there were this year compared with previous years.

Soooo not my thing!

Of course, I wanted one of EVERYTHING,

but I restrained myself and bought just a few things…

a McKenna Ryan pattern, a book by Nancy Halvorsen, a few pieces of a new bright floral collection, some fingertip cots, a yard of pre-printed labels…

We had such a nice day amongst folks who all love fabric and quilting! Just getting away for a day is so renewing!! And seeing all that eye candy really inspires me to get back in the sewing room and create!!